How to play The Witness in VR

A guide on how to play The Witness in VR... natively! No mods required!

!! WARNING !!

DO NOT PURCHASE VR JUST FOR THIS GAME!!!!!!
The Witness VR was left in an unfinished, buggy state. A VR headset is NOT worth this game alone. If you already have a VR headset, then sure, experience it - I think its worth it if you're already accustomed to VR.

THIS SHOULD NOT BE YOUR FIRST PLAYTHROUGH OF THE WITNESS. IT'S UNFINISHED, BUGGY, AND OVERALL A PAIN TO SET UP.

If you've already played The Witness and gotten a hang of how to play it AND HAVE A GAMEPAD ON HAND, you may continue with this guide. Otherwise, I respectfully ask that you leave and don't come back until you think you're ready.

You must also accept that the VR port was left in a buggy, unfinished state and is not suited for normal play. It's fine if you just want to waltz around and look at the sights, but that's about all its good for. It's still possible to solve puzzles in VR, and I'll teach you how to do it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

You'll also need the following to continue on with this guide:

• The Witness (duh...)
  
• SteamVR (REQUIRED, YOU CANNOT PLAY THIS WITH ANY OTHER RUNTIME)
  
• A gamepad (REQUIRED)
  
• Desktop+ (Optional for the most part, but required if you want to solve puzzles)

And finally, before I start, I will say that this was tested on an Oculus Rift S. I don't know if any other headsets work, but I'm assuming they do.

Alright, are we all on the same page now? Got everything you need? Let's continue on.

1. Setup

1. First, you must make sure to run The Witness in compatibility mode for Windows 7
   You can do this by going to The Witness in your Steam library, right clicking it, and going to Manage -> Browse local files.
   From there, you'll want to right click on "witness64_d3d11.exe", and select Properties. From there, go into Compatibility, and match up that screen with the one attached below.
   
2. Next, you'll want to disable SteamVR Theatre for The Witness.You can do this by right clicking the game from within Steam, choosing Properties, and making sure "Use Desktop Game Theatre while SteamVR is active" is DISABLED.
   
3. If you're using an Xbox Controller for the game, you'll want to disable Steam's support for that. With it enabled, The Witness won't even recognize your controller.
   You can disable support by going into Big Picture Mode -> Settings -> Controller Settings, and unchecking Xbox Configuration Support.
   
4. Next, you'll want to launch SteamVR - you must remember that you should never launch SteamVR after opening the game, otherwise tracking is going to be completely broken.
   
5. Next, you'll want to add the "-vr" launch flag to the game. You can do this from within the Properties menu, so open that back up again. At the bottom of the menu, there should be a textbox. Type in "-vr" (without the quotation marks) into it, and close the menu.
   
6. Finally, the startup screen is going to pop up and ask you for graphics options. These are CRITICAL, so choose the exact following:
   
   • Low graphics
     
   • V-Sync Disabled
   All in all, your startup screen should look like this:
   DO NOT TRY SELECTING HIGHER GRAPHICS. IT'S A VERY UNCOMFORTABLE EXPERIENCE EVEN ON HIGH-END SYSTEMS. JUST STICK WITH LOW, YOU'LL BARELY NOTICE IT APART FROM THE REFLECTIONS, TRUST ME.
   Finally, click OK.
   
7. You should now be in the game. Power up your gamepad, and you should be able to move like normal. The Witness uses snap turning in VR, and there is no option for smooth turning. So if you like smooth turning, sorry!
   
8. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO SOLVE PUZZLES: This is the part where you open Desktop+. If this is your first time using it, you'll be taken through a tutorial. Just go through it first, then come back here.
   
   1. Open up Desktop+ from SteamVR by opening the menu via your SteamVR button and clicking on the D+ icon on your virtual toolbar.
      
   2. Go into settings by hitting the gear icon.
      
   3. There should be a dropdown titled "Desktop 1", and a plus icon next to that. Hit the plus icon.
      
   4. A new desktop view should be created. Go into the settings for that view (should switch to it by default) and go to the Capture tab.
      
   5. Select "Graphics Capture" and choose The Witness from the dropdown.
      
   6. I'd recommend going back into general and shrinking the window down while also removing curvature, but that's up to you.
      
   7. There should be a menu next to the window itself, hit the button with the arrows to enable drag mode.
      
   8. Drag the window to you, rotate it, whatever you want, just make sure you can look at it easily.
      
   Alright, long setup for that, I know.

You're now ready to get into the game and get going. Let's talk about how to control now.

2. Controlling

I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again.
A GAMEPAD IS ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED TO PLAY IN VR.
Mouse and keyboard are NOT supported - don't even try using the mouse, trust me.
Your VR controllers are NOT supported.

You should be able to move around with the left joystick, and turn around with the right joystick.

Alright, good, you know how to control yourself now. If you're just looking around, you can stop here. But... if you want to solve puzzles...

This is where Desktop+ comes in. Try using your puzzle solving reticle in VR. Try it.
Doesn't appear, right? Now look at your Desktop+ view. Bam, there it is.
You'll need to look at your D+ view anytime you want to solve a puzzle in order to see where the reticle is.
You'll also most likely have to press the reticle button multiple times, as its completely bugged in VR.
It's gonna take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be solving puzzles like a pro.

Now, the fun part, more warnings.

3. Tips

DO NOT PURCHASE VR JUST FOR THIS GAME!!!!!!
The Witness VR was left in an unfinished, buggy state. A VR headset is NOT worth this game alone. If you already have a VR headset, then sure, experience it - I think its worth it if you're already accustomed to VR.

YOU SHOULD NEVER PAUSE THE GAME.
Pausing never got VR support, so whatever you looked at last will be locked to your HMD while your paused. AKA: Motion Sickness 101.

THE GAME SHOULD ALWAYS BE IN FOCUS ON YOUR DESKTOP.
You can lose focus for a bit, so long as you put it in focus again. If you're out of focus, SteamVR will treat the game as if its been frozen.

STAY AT THE CENTER OF YOUR PLAYSPACE.
The Witness VR doesn't have proper room-scale tracking. Anytime you turn with the joystick, it will rotate around the center of the playspace, not around you. If you'd like to not throw up today, stay at the center of your space.

STAND UP WHILE PLAYING!
This game will not auto-adjust to your height. In fact, there are no height options at all for this game. You should stand up while playing, that way, you'll look at everything head-on, the way you were meant to.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS.
The Witness in VR is absolutely stunning. You're going to be pulling hairs trying to set it up and control it, but once you get everything done, the visuals are well worth it.
Just prepare yourself. Listen to some calming music while doing this, grab a cup of water, watch your favorite show, take breaks, anything. Just don't stress yourself out before going into the game, or you're going to have an even worse time.

Witness VR (Video)

I've created a video showing off The Witness being played in VR over on my extras channel, which you can view here:
THIS VIDEO IS NOT SPOILER-FREE. IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE SECRET OF THE MOUNTAIN, DON'T WATCH!

If you needed a push on whether or not try this out, hopefully this gives you that push.

Have fun!

Setting up The Witness to use VR isn't easy, but once you get into the game, you'll see it's well worth it. The beautiful visuals are even more beautiful in VR, and it's a perfect place to just take a break.

If you're one of those people solving puzzles in VR, I wish you luck.

And for all of you playing the game in VR or flat, I hope you have an amazing time.

[Flytach]

I'm aware it uses it's own engine. But how did they made the Despair mod and the randomizer mod? How hard can it be to only show a reticle? haha

[Autumn]

The main issue with The Witness is it's made in its own proprietary game engine, so there's no existing documentation on how to mod it.

[Flytach]

If we could only solve the reticle problem, it would be completely playable in VR with the controller. I've been playing for hours and completed around 50 puzzles, only the lack of a reticle annoyed me.

I'm trying with re shade, or changing values, but I can't find how to set the reticle on in VR. I think any hud is disable, so many enabling hud/ui can solve it. idk, seems fairly moddable.

[tynoodle]

Any advice for how to get a DualShock4 to work with this? Got everything else running!

[L`]

Thanks for sharing this! Awesome experience!
It's a shame that this is not fully playable.

[cyberboy55126]

I can't get my PS4 controller to work with this. Could you please help?

[kube]

Excellent guide!!

For folks who'd like to play seated, check out OpenVR Advanced Settings for its height adjust options https://github.com/OpenVR-Advanced-Settings/OpenVR-AdvancedSettings

And as you might expect, The Witness' VR mode is exclusive to Windows and doesn't run on Linux :(